Cardinals’ Rumors: St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays discussing a trade

The St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays are discussing a deal for a starting pitcher that could include Jake Odorizzi.

According to MLB Trade Rumors, the St. Louis Cardinals could be acquiring a new starting pitcher form the Tampa Bay Rays. The report comes from Jon Morosi’s twitter account, and he mentions that it’s not known who the starter may be.

Odorizzi is the Tampa Bay starter that everyone is after this winter, so the price won’t be cheap, nor should it be given Odorizzi is still just 25 years old. Odorizzi had his best season ever this season finishing 9-9 with a 3.35 ERA (3.61 FIP), that figured him with a 2.9 fWAR according to Fangraphs.

In the MLB Trade Rumors piece, they mention that the other starters that could be included in a deal would be Drew Smyly and Matt Moore, both pitchers being left-handed is quite interesting given the Cardinals depth of lefties at this point. Smyly finished 5-2, with a 3.11 ERA (3.91 FIP) in an injury shortened 12 starts this season, making him worth just 0.9 fWAR last season. 

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Moore is an intriguing option, as at one point he was their top prospect. Moore debuted in 2011 making two appearances out of the bullpen and one start. He then became a featured member of the rotation in 2012 winning 11 games and finishing with an ERA of 3.81 (3.93 FIP) and a fWAR of 2.7.

Unfortunately for Moore, injuries have held him back and he’s not really gotten much better, as he finished with a 5.43 ERA in 12 starts this season. This is just rumors for right now, so we will be keeping you updated if a trade in fact does go down!